Monday, June 1, 2009

Trail Maintenance

I maintain about two miles of walking trails through Blue Jay Barrens. There is everything from the walking super-highway to the narrow township road variety. Early June is the time of first mowing for much of the trail system. Spring blooming flowers have finished their display and summer bloomers have not yet begun.

The trail through this area has been established for about 15 years. I try to mow infrequently enough to avoid changing the plant composition on the trail. You can see that the vegetation looks fairly uniform across this entire area.

The key to making sure you keep the trail in the same place each year is the centerline left by the deer. Deer are the most frequent users of this trail system. They tend to stay in the exact center of the mowed area, thus creating a worn area that remains from year. The mowed area is about three feet wide.

A problem not typically encountered during mowing is a tree down on the trail. A severe ice storm this past winter brought down hundreds of large branches. Normally I would have cleaned these up prior to plants beginning growth in the spring, but my priority was to clear fallen cedars from the prairies. I won’t drag branches through growing plants and figured that branches on the trail could be cut and carried out to an established brush pile along that trail. The trouble with being both the decision maker and the entire work force is that labor can’t effectively complain to management about the decisions being made. I hadn’t figured in all the additional branches that came down during the wind storms we had early this spring. I spent a lot more time cutting and carrying than I did walking behind the mower.

That piece of equipment is my DR Field and Brush Mower, referred to by me as Doctor Brush. DR Brush is customized with my special maintenance kit consisting of marking flags, pruning saw, hand pruners, litter bag and bag of tools and water.

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ABOUT BLUE JAY BARRENS

Located in the Bluegrass region of Southern Ohio, Blue Jay Barrens contains excellent xeric habitat inhabited by a wide variety of rare native plant and animal species. Since 1985, this private property has been managed to improve the integrity of the special ecosystems found here. This blog provides information on the current activities at Blue Jay Barrens.

RESPONSE TO COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS BLOG

It’s my intent to share information on current events at Blue Jay Barrens. Unless otherwise noted in the text, all photos were taken by me at Blue Jay Barrens.

Plant scientific names are from Gleason and Cronquist 1991. I realize that some changes in preferred nomenclature have occurred, but this is the principle reference I have been using for flora identification. Knowing this, I believe most people can figure out just what plant I’m talking about.

My discussions of flora and fauna are not intended to be a complete life history. There are plenty of good references for this type of information. I am discussing my personal experiences with plants and animals on this specific property. Any other information I may provide is intended to help you understand the significance of my observations.

MY 3 FAVORITE NATURE BOOKS:

1- Of Mosquitoes, Moths and Mice, by C Brooke Worth.2- Mosquito Safari: A Naturalist in Southern Africa, by C Brooke Worth.3- A Naturalist in Trinidad, by C Brooke Worth.

MY 3 FAVORITE FICTION BOOKS:

1- The Witches of Karres by James H Schmitz2- The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham3- The Windhover Tapes (1st 3 volumes) by Warren Norwood

MY 3 FAVORITE MOVIES:

1- Vanishing Point 1971 with Barry Newman2- Flim Flam Man 1967 with George C Scott - also like the book by Guy Owens3- The Lathe Of Heaven 1979 with Bruce Davison - also like the book by Ursula K LeGuin

MY 3 FAVORITE TV SHOWS:

1- The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan2- Fawlty Towers with John Cleese3- Kolchak: The Night Stalker with Darren McGavin